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['War on terror' or competition for natural resources? A look at the US and French military presence in Africa. Also, does this (and the presence of more mining head offices in Canada than any other place on earth) explain Trudeau's sudden 'humanitarian' military interest in Africa? *RON*]

Source: Al Jazeera, 15 Oct 2016

FACTSAfrica is the world's fastest-growing region for foreign direct investment Nearly $2tn of investments in African oil and gas are expected in the next two decades The continent's population will more than double to 2.3 billion people by 2050Africa has approximately 30 percent of the earth's remaining mineral resources
Sources: Al Jazeera, CIA Factbook

Africa remains a key territory on the global chessboard of the 21st century. Rich in oil and natural resources, the continent holds a strategic position.

Sub-Saharan Africa is home to six of the world's 10 fastest growing economies. North Africa …

[The divide between rich and poor in Germany is increasing, a new study has found. With fewer Germans advancing out of poverty compared to 20 years ago, researchers have called for more training to combat the gap. *RON*]
Deutsche Welle, 10 October 2016

For those living in poverty in Germany, the dream of socioeconomic advancement all too often remains unfulfilled, a new study published on Monday found.

The latest study from the Hans Böckler Foundation found that the percentage of Germans living in poverty rose from 11 percent in 1993 to 15.3 percent in 2013. Those living in poverty earned less than 60 percent of the median income.

"The longer a poverty situation persists, the stronger its impact on everyday life," said the study's author Dorothee Spannagel.

In the years between 1991 and 1995, 58 percent of Germans in poverty rose to a higher income bracket, the report noted.

Before Valeant took control of the medication, known as Calcium EDTA, in 2013, the average price for a package of vials was stable at $950, the medical news outlet STAT reported. But once the notorious pharmaceutical company bought it out in a multi-billion dollar deal, it swiftly boosted the price to $7,116 in January 2014 and to $26,927 by December of that year.

"This is a drug that has long been a standard of care, and until recently it was widely accessible at an affordable price," Dr. Mi…

By Michael D. Regan, PBS Newshour, 15 October 2016
Three Kansas men face federal charges after authorities said Friday they uncovered a plot to bomb an apartment complex housing Somali immigrants.

The men — Gavin Wright, 49, Patrick Eugene Stein, 47, and Curtis Allen, 49 — are accused of planning to use a weapon of mass destruction to target the community in an act of terrorism, according to charges filed in federal court on Friday.

“These three defendants conspired to conduct a bombing attack against an apartment complex occupied by men, women and children in the Garden City, Kansas community,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Tom Beall of the District of Kansas in a statement. “Protecting our nation from such attacks, whether they are rooted in domestic or international terrorism, is our highest priority.”

["They threw the book at Deia for being a journalist... Ryan Bialas, state’s attorney for Pembina County, told The Huffington Post there was no such targeting and said the event at the pipeline was 'not a protest' but 'a criminal action.'" *RON*]Nick Visser, Huffington Post, 14 October 2016

A documentarian arrested while filming an oil pipeline protest on Tuesday has been charged with three felony conspiracy charges ― and could face decades in prison if convicted.

This Monday afternoon, as the sun hits its peak over Mandan, North Dakota, the award-winning journalist, and host of Democracy Now!, Amy Goodman will walk into the Morton County–Mandan Combined Law Enforcement and Corrections Center and turn herself in to the local authorities. Her crime: good, unflinching journalism.

Goodman had the audacity to commit this journalism on September 3, when she was in North Dakota covering what she calls “the standoff at Standing Rock”: the months-long protests by thousands of Native Americans against the Dakota Access Pipeline. The $3.8 billion oil pipeline is slated to carry barrel after barrel of Bakken crude through sacred sites and burial grounds of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, and tribe members fear it could pollute the Missouri River, the source not only of their wate…